North Road Safety Campaigner Focusses on Speed

1 May 2017

Highlands and Islands Regional MSP and long time road safety campaigner, David Stewart is supporting the Brake road safety theme of tackling speeding motorists in the weeks and months leading up to this year’s road safety week, which takes place between 20th and 26th November 2017.

“Speed is a factor in almost all road collisions in Scotland, even if not the primary cause, it can be a contributory factor and it certainly plays a major part in the resultant casualty severity.

“The faster you drive, the longer it will take to stop. The results of speeding are often deadly for other road users, especially pedestrians and cyclists,” said David Stewart.

With the fourth United Nations Global Road Safety Week running from the 8th -14th May 2017, also focussing on speed, David said,

“it seemed an appropriate area of road safety for my team and I at NOSDAT (North Of Scotland Driving Awareness Team) to concentrate on in the months ahead, especially with our links to EASST (Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport).

“We will be speaking to businesses, Police Scotland, road safety groups and other stakeholders in the weeks ahead, seeking their support for our own safer speed - safer roads campaign over the coming months."

He continued :

“Over the past seven years we have as a team and by working with others, made a real difference with regards road safety across the Highlands Islands and Moray.

“ We have secured four road safety awards in recognition of our work, had some influence in persuading the UK Government to look again and improve the training of young and new drivers.

“Whilst we worked closely with SCID (Scottish Campaign against Irresponsible Drivers) we have been successful in persuading the Scottish Government to introduce drug driving limits in Scotland and by working in partnership with local businesses, we have launched many other successful local road safety campaigns ( see notes).

“In the coming weeks we would like to launch an initiative across the whole of the Highlands Islands and Moray which addresses the very serious issue of speeding motorists.

“With that in mind, I would like to seek the views and opinions of constituents (drivers, pedestrians,- including children, parents, guardians and childminders walking to and from school - cyclists and horse riders) as to how best they think we can address this issue.

“I want to listen to the views of our constituents and hear what they have to say.

“With that in mind I can be contacted by email on :

david.stewart.msp@parliament.scot

or by writing to me at

3 Gordon Terrace,Inverness,IV2 3HD

or via my office in Stornoway at

34 Cromwell Street, Stornoway HS1 2DD.

“I maybe in a position to offer help and support to individuals or groups, or alternatively, I am happy to listen to all suggestions and progress some of those deemed suitable and appropriate.

“Let’s face it, with thousands of road users across the North and islands, there must be some innovative and worthwhile ideas and suggestions that we can tap into.

“By working together we can and will continue to make our roads safer.”

Notes:

· Data held by DVLA shows there were 3.2 million licence holders in Scotland with over 300,000 who have points on their licence. This equates to one in 10 Scottish motorists who have penalty point on their driving licence. The figure for the rest of the UK is one in every 14 motorists.

· EASST is an independent UK-registered charity whose mission is to save lives and prevent injuries by making road transport safer, greener and more sustainable for future generations. Since its establishment in 2009-10, EASST has built a vibrant network of NGOs across Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia - contributing to significant reforms in the region and to the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.

· Some of the other NOSDAT road safety campaigns which David Stewart lead on were as follows: the sensible driving –always arriving campaign, the graduated driving licence scheme, addressing drivers with poor eyesight, the SMART campaign (drivers using mobile phones),winter driving check list campaign, the MFR road safety advert campaign and the young driver parental agreement campaign.